Hispanics find power in numbers

Lure of jobs has drawn immigrants since days of Little Mexico

When the morning of April 9, 2006, dawned, with its clear blue skies and warm sunshine, it unveiled the reality of a dramatic demographic shift that had been building in Dallas and North Texas for a decade. File An estimated 300,000 to 500,000 protesters packed downtown Dallas streets as they marched April 9, 2006, in support of immigration rights. View larger Photography Photo store

Thousands upon thousands of people, most of them Hispanic, came downtown by bus, DART train, automobile and foot to protest what they believed to be unjust immigration laws. The numbers astounded even the organizers. Slowly at first, then rapidly, the streets filled with people spilling onto side streets and eventually into the plaza in front of City Hall.

The exact numbers of the 2006 "mega march" are still in question - anywhere from 300,000 to 500,000 protesters. But there is no question that for the first time in the city's history, most of Dallas' Hispanic community roared in unison. And perhaps for the first time, in a tangible way, North Texas' Hispanics showed how far they had come - and how far they could still go.

State Rep. Roberto Alonzo notes that while Dallas' Hispanic population may have seen explosive growth in the past 25 years - growing from about 12 percent of the Dallas population in 1980 to the current estimate of 43 percent - Hispanics have always been an integral part of Dallas' history and development.

"Dallas has always meant jobs, and an economy that is business-friendly," Alonzo says. "And that has always attracted people, including Hispanics."

Today, the impact of the area's Hispanics is visible in almost every corner - in the scores of businesses that line Jefferson Boulevard in Oak Cliff and the Northwest Highway/Webb Chapel intersection; the election of city and county officials; the overwhelming presence in the enrollment of the Dallas Independent School District; and the inner-ring suburbs such as Irving, Garland and Mesquite.

Dallas now has three Hispanic City Council members. Hispanic students make up almost 69 percent of DISD enrollment.

According to the Migration Policy Institute, foreign-born people made up 9 percent of the Texas population in 1990. That number grew to 13.9 percent in 2000 and 16 percent in 2008. The majority, nearly 62 percent, were from Mexico.

But economists and residents note that the Hispanic population explosion has significant implications beyond mere numbers. They say that education, public services and job training need to catch up.

Unlike San Antonio and El Paso, Dallas did not always have a sizable Hispanic population. But by the early 1900s, that began to change, in large part because of an exodus of Mexicans fleeing the turmoil of the Mexican Revolution, which took place roughly from 1910 until 1920.

'El barrio'

Many settled in what became known as Little Mexico, though most residents simply called it el barrio. The neighborhood began as a collection of shacks in what was a red-light district known as Frogtown. Many of the initial residents were Jews from Poland, but that community began to migrate to what is now South Dallas.

At its peak, just before World War II, the self-contained community had about 15,000 people, with its own stores, schools and community center. But the postwar boom created opportunities for some residents to move from the neighborhood. At the same time, downtown development began to encroach.

Today, virtually all that remains of Little Mexico is Pike Park; Little Mexico Village, a public housing development; and a handful of old homes. In its place are gleaming high-rise office and residential towers, and what is now Victory Park.

Longtime residents still recall the summer of 1973, when an incident in Little Mexico sparked the closest thing to a race riot to hit Dallas. Early on the morning of July 24, 1973, police officers rousted two neighborhood boys from their home. Santos Rodriguez, 12, and his 13-year-old brother, David, were suspected of breaking into a soda machine outside a gas station.

As the handcuffed boys were questioned, one of the two officers put a .357-caliber Magnum revolver to Santos' head and pulled the trigger once, then again. A bullet exploded from the barrel, killing Santos in the squad car as his blood soaked his brother's feet.

The officer said he thought he had removed the bullets.

Four days later, more than 1,000 marched from the Kennedy Memorial toward City Hall, which was then near Main and Harwood streets. By the march's end, five Dallas police officers were injured and 38 people were arrested.

Dallas native and longtime education advocate Rene Martinez credits two things with spurring the tremendous growth of North Texas' Hispanic community: the landmark 1982 Plyler vs. Doe decision, in which the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the right of undocumented immigrant children to attend public schools, and the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986.

"Those two events really changed things. You might say they opened up the floodgates," says Martinez, immigration coordinator for District 3 of the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC). "Dallas-Fort Worth had always been a destination, and after that, it started being even more of a magnet."

Vanna Slaughter, director of immigration and legal services for Catholic Charities in Dallas, says that since the 1986 immigration law, the government office in Arlington handling area applications has seen at least 88,000 people granted legal status.

The act allowed millions across the country to become legal residents and let them sponsor immediate family members so they could become legal.

A new influx

Also in the 1980s, Central Americans, estimated at up to 50,000, arrived here as they fled civil strife in their homelands.

One of those is Margarita Alvarez, who now lives in Garland and is a workers' rights activist.

Alvarez arrived in the Dallas area in 1989. She left her native Guatemala after her brother, a union member, was killed and her family was threatened. Alvarez was granted political asylum in 1996. She was one of the speakers who addressed the throng at the 2006 mega march rally.

"It was a very strong force that brought us all here," Alvarez says of the Central American refugees. "In the time I have been here, there have been so many changes."

Central American foods and products are much more common now than they were when she arrived more than 20 years ago. Hispanic-owned and -operated businesses are much more numerous, she says, making new arrivals feel more welcome.

"But there are still many economic pressures," Alvarez says. "So many people still don't have jobs, and those that do don't have good salaries. Many of us lag behind in health and education."

The Hispanic population explosion has had a huge impact on the creation of businesses, which developed to satisfy new consumer markets, says Edward Rincon, who grew up in el barrio.

"La Raza has a penchant for entrepreneurship," Rincon says, referring to the Hispanic population. "If it wasn't for immigration, the inner city would have already disappeared." His firm's research shows that Hispanic consumers are spending millions of dollars for food and other goods.

Bernard Weinstein, an economist at Southern Methodist University's Cox School of Business, says migration to the state may have slowed since the recession of 2008, but Hispanic growth continues.

"In Dallas County, Anglos are already a minority, and in the not-too-distant future they will be in all of North Texas," Weinstein says.

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